


What We Gained (and What We Lost)

by SansThePacifist



Series: Watching the World Burn [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Fix-it (more like mess-it-up), Foreshadowing, Gen, Good Uchiha Obito, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Uzumaki Naruto, Late-as-always obito uchiha, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rogue-nin, Smart Uzumaki Naruto, Some Fluff, Stalking, Uchiha Obito Lives, What-If's, be sure to tell me if i missed any tags, direct sequel to Just His Luck, jounin obito uchiha, kind of bitter-sweet at some points, naruto learns some things, obito and kakashi have a breif run-in, obito being an idiot as usual, obito is trying, uwu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 07:30:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16404002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SansThePacifist/pseuds/SansThePacifist
Summary: “Who-” The man turned enough for him to see scar upon scar, deformed eyelids and a strange color on the man’s cheeks. He panicked, tearing the blade out of his leg, despite the lessons from Rin nagging at him and telling him otherwise, and pointing it at the man. “Whoareyou?” He definitely did not screech, throwing it at him.The man only scoffed, dodging the bloodied kunai easily, and glared at him. “Unimportant.”Unimportant?Unimportant?Bullshit. He calledbullshit.// Direct sequel toJust His Luck





	What We Gained (and What We Lost)

 Obito did a sloppy flip away from the person behind the assault, ignoring the pain in his jaw as he shifted his weight onto his uninjured leg. Okay, so, ninja attacking. Got it. His attention shifted to a man in a black cloak with- were those red clouds? Come on, that was a shitty for stealth, who would put red clouds on black? Especially with white outlining the clouds. It popped out like a sore thumb and he was honestly not liking the contrast much. It was a horrible design but _holy fuck_ the chakra that man had was immense _and_ familiar. _Two_ packages that he wasn't quite sure he wanted to open.

He slid his attention to the group of rogue-nin hiding in the foliage, eyes red as he attempted to calculate the chances of escape. He was injured. Though the wounds were minor, they would still impair his mobility. The nin seemed to be of decent level, a higher level than most other jounin he knew, and the killer intent was enough to make him freeze, if only for a moment. The men all charged, weapons raised and chakra blazing, then-

The man with the red clouds deflected the attacks, nothing but a streak of silver despite his kekkei-genkai active. Obito was rooted in place, however, as his attention was caught by two sharingan. The other was a Uchiha? There was no Uchiha with white hair, though. Affairs were, of course, forbidden, as were half-blooded Uchiha, and all other Uchiha were pretty stiff about the rules. There was no way that they would break a rule like that.

“Who-” The man turned enough for him to see scar upon scar, deformed eyelids and a strange color on the man’s cheeks. He panicked, tearing the blade out of his leg, despite the lessons from Rin nagging at him and telling him otherwise, and pointing it at the man. “Who _are_ you?” He definitely did not screech, throwing it at him.

The man only scoffed, dodging the bloodied kunai easily, and glared at him. “Unimportant.”

Unimportant? _Unimportant?_

Bullshit. He called _bullshit._

 

Either way, he didn't manage to pry a name from the man. He also did not kill the ninja who attempted to kill him, so that was nice. What was also nice was that the man led him home. He was going to get in so much fucking trouble that it was not even funny. Seriously, who the fuck was he? He groaned, turning to yell at him only to find the him gone, which was _also_ nice.

 

"Who was the man that brought you?" Hiruzen asked, eyes narrowed dangerously behind his false, yet easily deceivable, smile that was, fairly obviously, weary with old age. Obito knew better, oh he _knew_ better, than to lie to the Hokage, but the rouge-nin (he was _sure_ the man, whoever he was, was a rouge-nin. He was far too powerful to be anything else) had helped him out. He wasn't so rude as to _not_ return the favor. As so, Obito purposefully twisted his lips, pressing his eyebrows down, until he looked baffled.  
"What man?" He asked, tone laced with impressive yet faked incredulity.

Hiruzen frowned at him.

 

He sighed. Another failed genin team. What was the academy teaching these days anyways? How to think only for yourself 101? Honestly, it sucked. They didn't even know how to throw a kunai properly and that _really_ said something. He was quite disappointed in them. Did they even know what _chakra_ is?  
  
He stared at the Hokage. "Team 4 did not pass." One of the other Jounin groaned.  
"Come on, Obito. Give them a break, they _are_ just freshly minted Genin." He gave them an dry look.

"If they ever listened in class," He refuted, "they would know how to solve such a simple problem." Lord Third seemed to agree with him, giving a thin smile before moving onto the other Jounin Instructors.

Itachi got another tomoe in his sharingan. He was terrified. He remembered, himself, the days where he would get congratulations from elders within the clan. They would ignore the casualties that gave him such an eye and nod in acceptance, _finally_ seeing him as a member of a clan. How they pushed him further and further away from his friends, into ANBU, and remarked cruelly when he messed up. He remembered being backed into a corner, afraid of messing up, afraid of losing family. Afraid of disappointing the people he loved and cared for. ~~Afraid of betraying his ninja-way.~~

What would the clan do to that poor boy he used to take to dango? How far would they be able to push him and how disappointed will they be when he breaks? He didn’t want to know, nor did he want to watch. He pat the clan-heir on the head anyways, a sad smile playing on his lips.

“I’m sorry,” He said, “For what you will have to go through.” _He didn’t want to know._

  
Naruto fumbled with a bottle of ink before grabbing a brush and making a small seal. His hand made a sloppy sign and said seal exploded. Obito rose a brow, he was _almost_ impressed, "Close," He instructed, guiding the child's hand. "You made the wrong sign." And put too much chakra in, but that can be solved with practice.

Naruto groaned, " _How_ do you do this, Tobi-nii?" And he laughed.  
"Practice." He chided. Naruto flopped onto the floor at that, quite unhappy with the answer. How dramatic. He gets _that_ from his father.

"You are no longer my favorite brother." He whined from the floor.  
"And who is?" The Uzumaki huffed, giving no answer.  
  
He stayed carefully still. He was cold, the air was warm, and he was hiding from an enemy. The enemy was approaching at an alarming speed, groceries almost hitting the floor. He sank into the brush, hoping that they wouldn’t spot him. _Don't be seen. Don't be seen. Don-_ "Oh, Obito!" The old lady chirped happily. "Do you want to help me carry my bags?" Fuck... How was he supposed to deny that when she asked him _so_ nicely? Her grandson gave him a look and he crumbled like a soaked paper.

So he dealt with some kid ramble on about some girl he's got a crush on while he carried a load of groceries for some grandma that he couldn't remember the name of. He _really_ did have a briefing to get to...  
  
"Sorry I'm late, there was an old lady with her grandson that recognized me and apparently she was very specific about the store she got her things from because her house was _all the way across town_ and she asked so nicely if I could help carry her groceries-" One of the supposed teammates scoffed.  
"And let me guess, she gave you some sort of reward?" Obito brightened before fishing out a piece of candy.  
"Yep!" He chirped, _far_ too pleased, "It's chocolate too!"

 

They did well on the mission for once. It kinda terrified him that it went so peacefully. No arguments or anything. When he got back home, he was met with all his valuables gone. _Oh,_ he murmured, _that was why._ Something always, _always_ went wrong, after all.

...How did they get through the traps..? Or the seals, for that matter.

 

He still got nightmares. Usually, with a lot of practice, he could ignore them. Except, one of his most recent nightmares was _new_ . He didn’t know how it went the way it did or why. Either way, in it, Kakashi had a sharingan, Kakashi also killed Rin, Obito killed Minato and Kushina, and the moon was red. Which made no sense, really. Everyone _knows_ the moon doesn’t have a weird sharingan-like pattern on it. Maybe he was feeling nostalgic for those childish legends he used to hear around a campfire. Though that was one weird ass nightmare. Especially since he turned into dust or something..?

He decided not to think about it too much.

 

Has he ever ranted about how fucking adorable Naruto is? If he hasn’t, he has failed as the Uzumaki’s self-proclaimed older brother. Still, Naruto was like the sun. He was always happy, even with a single mother, and seemed to attract everyone within a mile radius. The kid was actually somewhat smart, too. It was impressive. Everything was impressive with him, actually. His ability to make people smile, his terrible chakra control, the amount of chakra he had that was practically on-par with Kushina’s, his ability to make seals without much instruction, all of it. His cute little brother was going to go places and Obito hoped, god he hoped, that it wouldn't end up anywhere near where he had landed.

 

Obito… Was seriously considering punching himself. That rogue-nin from before- He still couldn't find any hita-ate on his person but there was something distinctly _Konoha_ about him- had been following him for a few weeks on and off. It was strange- very, very _strange-_ and he had a feeling that it had something to do with not ratting him out. Because he's an idiot, he tried to talk to the rogue-nin. The ‘unimportant’ man vanished before Obito could speak, only leaving leaves on the floor and a slight change in the wind.

So, yeah. Still no clue who the rogue ninja was.

 

Naruto was a good listener, if he wanted to be, and Obito was surprisingly good at explaining things in a way that the kid could understand. He didn't exactly expect, however, to be asked about why he he always looked sad (“Just like kaa-chan, dattebayo”) or why he kept his hita-ate tied around his arm. (“It’s weird, Tobi-nii! I've never seen anyone else wear it like that!”) It left him frozen in an attempt to find the right words.

“I.. I can’t see my friends anymore,” He settled upon. “They are in a place that I can't get to.”

“Oh,” The kid said. “Like otou-san?” And Obito nodded.

“Yeah, your otou-san was one of them.” Naruto frowned a little.

“What does that have to do with wearing your thing on your arm, ‘ttebayo?” Obito gave a sad smile.

“Not all of my friends left in a good way, so I keep it there to remember them.” To remind himself that he’s not there, watching them die again.

“Oh.” Naruto said again, looking deep in thought. He then grinned at him. “I'll help you remember them, too!” Obito blinked a few times before he laughed, ruffling the kids hair.

“I'm sure they would like that!”


End file.
